'Bog bodies' top the bill at Lough Neagh Song of the Bog conference

Staff reporter

Experts from across Ireland are to descend on Lough Neagh for a unique conference on bog bodies, hidden landscapes and the heritage on our doorstep.

The unique Song of the Bog conference will take place on Wednesday, May 10 at Lough Neagh Discovery Centre - and entry is free.

Among those invited to speak are doctors, professors and artists with a special interest in Ireland's bogs.

They will bring to life topics unique to Lough Neagh's bogs, including Secrets of the Bog Bodies; Change, Climate and the Bog; Hidden Landscapes – Heritage and Lessons; Peatlands Park – Its Journey to Nature, Deep Mapping – Bogs and Conversations; Big Oaks – Their Message in History (Dendrochronology) and Bog Love’ and ‘Connecting Science and Stories.

The event is aimed at anyone with an interest in the landscape, built, natural and cultural elements of the heritage of Lough Neagh and with a particular interest in the sometimes complex and challenging subject of peat.

Dr William Burke, Manager at Lough Neagh Landscape Partnership, said: "Bogs have been part of the consciousness of this landscape for centuries. The opportunities of this unique part of our landscape is immense.

"Bogs have inspired poetry, provided a window on the past, a source of warmth and a home to the richest of ecologies and the Lough Neagh landscape has more than its fair share of these riches.

"Peat joins the built, natural and cultural elements of our heritage like nothing else. Of course, there are challenges in any talk of bogs.

"The bog is not only a reservoir of carbon trapped by the plants that grew at its surface; it is a repository of information about our past and particularly about the ways communities used or abused the landscapes that supported them.

"The Song of the Bog conference will address these challenges and consider the opportunities in what we hope will be the beginning of a conversation around the value of bog lands to us all."

To reserve your free place at the conference and start the journey with Lough Neagh Landscape Partnership to unlock the Song of the Bog, contact Lough Neagh Landscape Partnership on 028 7941 7941.

This conference has been made possible by funding supplied by Heritage Lottery Fund and is one of 27 integrated Heritage Lottery Fund landscape programme projects which aim to protect the built, cultural and natural heritage of the Lough being delivered by Lough Neagh Landscape Partnership.